The 8 Best Ways to Craft the Perfect Tweet | iContact

Having a presence on Twitter is vital if you want to strengthen your personal brand. But mastering the 140-character limit and keeping afloat in a seemingly endless stream of Twitter posts can seem daunting. How can you stand out in the fast-paced world of Twitter?

The simple answer is by crafting a “perfect” tweet that will reach as many people as possible. Follow these 8 tips to increase your Twitter confidence.

1. Make it conversational.

Twitter is an open platform. This means it’s easy for people to encounter your posts if one of their followers retweets or favorites your tweet — even if they’re not following you. Because of this accessibility, you have the potential to reach hundreds of people beyond your own Twitter stream. (Millions, if one of your posts goes viral — but that doesn't happen very often.)

Think of Twitter as an ongoing conversation with your followers.

As with any great conversation, begin by listening — listen to what people are saying about your brand or industry. Look for opportunities to join or start conversations. Become familiar with the topics that are creating buzz. Ask questions. Share an interesting fact. Spark a little controversy if you want. Just be sure you are adding to the conversation, and not just sticking your nose in for attention.

Remember that Twitter, like all social media platforms, isn’t a one-way broadcast channel. People want to engage and interact. You need to be having a conversation, not proselytizing.

2. Keep it short and simple.

Think of a tweet as a creative challenge. You have 140 characters to express yourself; use the limit to focus on the essence of what you want to say. In other words, keep it short and get to the point.

If you are finding the Twitter character limit frustrating, take comfort that relief has arrived. Twitter has finally rolled out some long-awaited changes that will give you additional breathing space in your tweets: Media attachments will no longer count against your character limit. That means photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote tweets don't count against the 140 characters available for tweeting. That should leave you with some extra characters for crafting extraordinarily witty and informative tweets.

Bonus tip: When every character counts, it's easy to fall into the trap of using abbreviations. Avoid them. For example, spell out “as far as I know” instead of “AFAIK.” Your audience may not understand the abbreviation and they will be scrambling to Google the meaning instead of focusing on your message. That said, a good LOL every now and then can come in handy.

4. Don’t go overboard with hashtags.

Hashtags are an essential part of a tweet. Hashtags enable your tweets to show up more easily in search results, can help organize your tweets into themed discussions, and enable you to jump into conversations with like-minded people. When you use hashtags, your message is amplified and exposed to everyone else talking about or searching for information on that particular topic. In fact, using hashtags can improve Twitter engagement by 16%.

In case you are wondering, there is a #toomanyhashtags hashtag on Twitter.

However, unless you are 14 years old, or are suffering from serious Instagram addiction (Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post), don’t go overboard with the number of hashtags you use. Stick to just one or two relevant hashtags per tweet. In practice, the more hashtags you use, the less amount of engagement your tweet will receive. And too many hashtags can make a tweet look a little, well, desperate for attention.

You can create your own hashtags or jump in on what’s trending. Start with Twitter’s own “tailored trends” that show up on the right of your account page and are based on your location and who you follow. Twitter only identifies the top 10 trending topics for you, so if you want to check out the broader conversation, there are a number of platforms such as hashtagify.me that you can use to identify hashtags relevant to you. A quick Google search of "hashtags" will yield a number of other options.

5. Piggyback when appropriate.

Is there a popular industry event in town that you're a part of? Use the event hashtag in your tweet. Is your staff attending a conference? Use the conference hashtag when you are tweeting about their participation. As mentioned above, use trending hashtags to piggyback on existing conversations where you can bring something valuable.

Keep in mind that if you capitalize on a trend, make absolutely sure you know what the trend is about before you jump in, and that it has some relevance for your brand. DiGiorno Pizza learned this the hard way when the company inappropriately used the #WhyIStayed hashtag in 2014. The hashtag focused on bringing awareness to domestic violence. DiGiorno had no place inserting itself into that conversation and the brand got a lot of backlash for hijacking a serious hashtag to sell frozen pizza. DiGiorno apologized and deleted the offensive tweet, but the damage was done. Keep in mind that even deleted tweets continue to have a life of their own as screenshots that are shared widely by irate tweeters. The moral of the story: Think before you tweet.

6. Don’t try to "trick" followers.

Overly sales-y or promotional tweets tend not to perform very well. In fact, a recent study found that posting too many promotions is identified as the most annoying action taken by brands on social media. People on Twitter are looking for breaking news, valuable information, interesting/controversial/silly conversations, and even a laugh or two. If you are always "Sell, Sell, Sell," it's going to be a turnoff.

Twitter followers (like Facebook followers) also don’t want to be tricked into reading or opening a “click-bait” tweet like, “Dog goes for a swim in the ocean for the first time. You won't believe what happens next!!!!” This kind of content is a dime a dozen on social platforms and comes off about as welcome as spam. If you actually do have a great video of your dog going for his first swim, create a straightforward headline like “Dog’s pure joy in the ocean is contagious.” And add an appropriate dog-lover hashtag in your tweet.

7. Follow basic rules of grammar and spelling.

Even big brands make the occasional gaffe on Twitter. And the Twitterverse can be quick to respond. Source: Twitter.

Unless you have a legitimate reason for using tweenspeak — i.e., you’re a brand that caters to a younger demographic and you really, really want to jump on a theme — don’t neglect the basic rules of grammar. Double-check your spelling and try to include appropriate commas and periods. There is a bit of leeway in punctuation if you are straining against the 140-character limit. You can skip a comma or two, but try not to do it too often. It can make a tweet difficult to read.

Remember, everything you tweet will be taken as a representation of your brand. Paying attention to grammar may not be the hippest thing to do, but it is the professional thing to do. And, most importantly, it will keep people from laughing at you instead of with you.

8. Use automation to amplify.

There are a number of social media management tools that allow you to schedule tweets in advance. For busy individuals, these tools can save you a ton of time and amplify your content. iContact allows you to schedule messages on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and easily extend your email marketing campaigns online. iContact Pro enables you to leverage the power of email marketing with advanced monitoring and reporting of your social media channels.

By using a platform that lets you schedule your posts, you can keep your evergreen content in circulation on Twitter and other social media channels.

Platforms like MeetEdgar allow you to build a library of content categories over time that you can use to post to various social media platforms; you determine the schedule. This is particularly helpful when you have a lot of great, evergreen content (like blog posts) that merit continuing attention. After all, if your content is good, it deserves more than a one-time use.

But don’t go overboard and incessantly tweet, retweet, follow, and unfollow just for the sake of keeping your numbers up. This results in annoying Twitter behavior that can harm your brand’s reputation. Keep your tweeting to a combination of spontaneous, of-the-minute content and scheduled, relevant content tailored for your audience.

Have you mastered the perfect tweet? Share your tips below. And, by the way —